The Creation of God

Map of the Intellectual Faculties--The Mind, opp. title-page. Map of Theological Retrogression, opp. p. 390 Map of the Deluge and Garden of Eden, opp. p. 432

PREFACE.

"Si les nommes étaient capables de gouverner toute la conduite de leur vie par un dessein reglé, si la fortune leur était toujours favorable, leur âme serait libre de toute superstition."

--Spinoza, 1650.

"Il n'y a pas de moyen plus efficace que la Superstition pour gouverner la multitude."

--Quinte Curce.

"But in the temple of their hireling hearts Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn All earthly things but virtue."

"Falsehood demands but gold to pay the pangs Of outraged conscience; for the slavish priest Sets no great value on his hireling faith."

"But human pride Is skillful to invent most serious names To hide its ignorance."

--Shelley.

At this time, in this age of agitation, unrest, dissatisfaction, and doubt among the masses, and all classes, in every civilized part of the globe, in all communities and human organizations, in church and out of church, ecclesiastical bodies of all shades; besides the vast number of theories and doctrines of a popular socialistic, anti-poverty, communistic order, etc., a prevailing skepticism has seized the minds of men, as to the truth, validity, and stability of the entire religious fabric. The unsettled condition of the minds of men, the disturbing elements of the laboring classes, the church quarrels, clerical litigations, disputes, wrangling, and mutual hate about scriptural authenticity, its truth and supernaturalism, the heresies and blasphemies, the unsatisfactory condition of the Roman church, the constant and unremitting papal correspondence, the petty bickering, the selfish zeal, the greed for money, the anxiety to raise funds for all kinds of ecclesiastical establishments, naturally arouse suspicion whether the idea of a God is not going out of fashion, whether the clergy has not lost faith in the Book, whether the Jew, the Jehovistic aristocrat, has not been the primary inventor of these supernatural wares, whether the Christian theologians are not beginning to lose their sway and grip and their pretended supernatural authority over their ignorant devotees. We may ask frankly, honestly, truthfully, and in perfect good faith:

Has not the time arrived for a grand and human reformation? For new methods of teaching, for new and more accurate ideas, for a more precise knowledge of the natural, for instructions in absolute facts, for a more thorough understanding of natural laws, for a broader comprehension of man himself and his surroundings, for an abandonment of all the supernatural subterfuge, ignorance, and superstition, of religious fables, miracles, false theories, and misleading doctrines as to God, with their immense sacrifice of human life.